Summary:
The Geminid meteor
shower peaked under the light of the brightest full Moon of 2008.
Despite the lunar interference, however, it turned out to be a good
show. Observers around the world counted dozens of bright meteors
per hour. [meteor
counts]

Editor's
note: Amateur radio astronomer Thomas Ashcraft operates
a dual radio-optical meteor monitoring system. An all-sky
video camera records fireballs as they streak overhead,
while an antenna array records the reflections of distant
radio stations from the meteor's ionized trail. The eerie-sounding
echoes are wonderful!

Ashcraft's
comments: "In the midst of moonlight and fast moving
clouds, I am pleased to report a strong showing of Geminid
fireballs. Forward scatter reception was saturated with
accumulated asteroid dust but still the fireballs rang through."

For
the 2008 Geminid meteor shower I was under crystal clear
sky in central Iran, at the ancient fire temple of Zorostrian
era in Niasar, near Kashan. The show was not much spectacular
because of the bright moon but still there was quite a number
of beautiful bright meteors.

"Wow!
This was one of the best displays of Geminids we've ever
seen," says Bill Cooke of the Marshall Space Flight
Center in Alabama. NASA's Asgard-Sentinal
meteor camera recorded more than 80 bright Geminids during
the long night of Dec. 13-14 in spite of bright moonlight
and many clouds. In the
movie, note the circular halo that forms around the
Moon as it arcs across the sky; that is caused by ice crystals
in high clouds.

I
am counting meteors with my old, always working, analog
system. Last night detecting the Geminids with my meteor
radio reflecting system I counted about 118 meteors per
hour around the maximum.On a meteor quiet night I detect
normally at the same time about 24 meteors per hour. That
means 94 Geminids last night around 02.30 UTC. System: VHF56.25
MHZ, audio signal TV transmitter Litouwen. Antenne direction
around zenith.